Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood: A Renaissance of Joy

There is a touch of spring and youth in the air. Could that be Douglas Fairbanks?


It seems there is a Douglas Fairbanks Sr. restoration movement afoot. Notice any similarity?

How about now?

All of a sudden silent films are "in" and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., one of the most overlooked of super stars, is putting feelers out in the universe. While watching Jean Dujardin in "The Artist" I couldn't get over the obvious homage to Fairbanks. Just in case I was imagining it, Dujardin, in his Oscar acceptance speech, noted that Fairbanks was the host of the very first Academy Awards ceremony. He then went on to pay tribute to Doug in this very charming manner:

And just because the universe is like that sometimes, my wonderful local theater was showing the epic "Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood" last night (live music by the great Ben Model).

Douglas Fairbanks had a child's love of fantasy and adventure. The stories he loved as a boy influenced his cinematic persona and the stories he chose to tell. As his personality evolved from the go-getter young man to the swashbuckling adventurer, Fairbanks gave in more and more to his inner child. His cinema recreations of his favorite classics are told from the viewpoint of an adolescent boy. They are innocent, chaste, playful and athletic. Oh, and damn entertaining. Robin Hood was a perfect story for Doug with all of the right ingredients: a noble hero, dastardly villains (Paul Dickey as Sir Guy of Gisbourne and Sam De Grasse as oily Prince John are hiss-provoking), a virginal maiden with spunk, all taking place in the land of knights and castles and bows and arrows.

The 1922 production was one of the biggest the world had seen. The sets alone are amazing, Doug's stunts are eye-popping and, although the film is over two hours long, it zips along without any dead stretches. It also has Wallace Beery as a rather comical Richard the Lionhearted and Alan Hale as Little John (Hale reprises this role again in 1938's "The Adventure of Robin Hood"). The film had the added distinction of being the first film to be shown at the grand Egyptian Theater.

It's nice to be able to watch our favorite films on TCM in the comfort of our home, but it can't beat the special, shared experience of seeing a great silent film in a theater where the audience collectively holds its breath, chuckles with delight and generally falls under the spell of the magical Mr. Fairbanks. 90 years after the film was made, it still thrills, it still enchants. This is largely due to the vision and the artistry of Douglas Fairbanks, for this film is 100% his vision. By now, we've seen bigger, we've seen better, we've seen it all, but Doug is still a shining star. I think he'd be pleased.

There is a great temptation to compare the Fairbanks Robin Hood to the Errol Flynn Robin Hood. Though the characters are the same, the films are totally different in plot line, tone and style. Flynn is a devil-may-care charmer, but he's all man. Doug is virile, too, but he is a hero out of a story book, a man the way an innocent, adolescent boy sees a man. Doug, by the way, under his pseudonym "Elton Thomas" assisted in the screenplay.

Douglas Fairbanks communicates his love of movies the way a dancer communicates the joy of movement or a musician communicates the joy of song. His art transcends words and "acting" as we have come to know it. He is the embodiment of the early, joyous, mad, creative days of that great place that was Hollywood; a place the rest of the world suddenly wants to get to know. There is no better guide back to that wondrous world than one of its greatest creators. 

So, listen carefully: the universe is whispering "Douglas Fairbanks, Douglas Fairbanks...."


For an earlier post, "Douglas Fairbanks, the Greatest Romantic" click here.


Click here to read a letter from Doug's granddaughter, Melissa Fairbanks, to Jean Dujardin about his performance in "The Artist." Sweet.

Read More

Douglas Fairbanks: The Greatest Romantic

When we consider the word "romance" or "romantic" we usually think of romantic, sexual love. In the silent era, the great  romantic male lovers were Valentino, Gilbert and other smoldering latin lover types. We usually don't think of Douglas Fairbanks, high-spirited, happy-go-lucky adventurer, as a romantic star. However, if we think of romance as:

"a fictitious tale of wonderful and extraordinary events, characterized by a nonrealistic and idealizing use of the imagination," (a definition from a web-based dictionary)

then I make the case for Douglas Fairbanks as the most romantic movie star. Ever. 

How fortunate for Doug and for filmgoers that his exuberant spirit and the silent film collided. How lucky for silent films, this most personal form of entertainment that speaks directly to the child in us and the child's love of make believe, that they and this joyful man-child found one another at just the right moment.

In Doug's hands, the romance of adventure, high spirits, of heroes and damsels of old, were tales that were lovingly told with an open heart and a sweeping vision that could only have found a voice in silent films. His youthful view of the world and the youth of the medium, combined with the giddy, youth-worshiping twenties, produced films that spoke to the hours curled up with Robin Hood or The Arabian Nights, alone with nothing but a book and an innocent imagination of a world where anything is possible; a world of beauty where good always triumphs,the hero is dashing (always) and the damsel is beautiful and in distress. It is a world of action and possibilities, of chaste kisses, full hearts and happy endings.

Who better than Doug to sweep us away on a magic carpet ride?

Douglas Fairbanks was a great artist who knew exactly what he was doing. He infused his work with enthusiasm, joy and romance, all with the sole purpose of creating magic and enchantment. He loved the movies. When faced with the dreary, mechanical vision of a sound stage for talking pictures, Fairbanks tuned to his colleague, Art Director Laurence Irving, and said "Laurence, the romance of motion picture making ends here." Limits, the sad reality that ushers in maturity, had been set. Things would never be the same.

The world moves on, we age and the little child in us moves ever farther away. Even Doug grew older and lost Mary, Pickfair and stardom. Nevertheless, he, and the great silents, gave us a portal to that eternal child. What a relief to find a way back to romance and innocence through Doug's pure artistry, athleticism, vision and joy. For those of us that think this is what the movies are all about, there is no greater star than Douglas Fairbanks.

Read More